stock market meant choosing a company you thought would do well in the world of commerce and then putting some of your own money into the game.

If the company you chose and its product or service did well, the value of that company's stock went up and you made money. If that company's product or service did poorly, the value of the stock dropped and you lost money.

"Buy low, sell high," was the standard formula for success when it came to investing.

The idea was to pick stock in a company that was on the cusp of a rebound or just starting out and had good prospects for success, and then buy the stock before it went up in value.

Then, you would sell that same stock when it appreciated to a certain level, before it dropped in value again. By paying attention to market trends and making good decisions about when to buy and when to sell, the win/win proposition was this:

You put capital into your community by buying stock, thus helping to create jobs and spur innovation and new products, and in return, you got to participate in the company's success by sharing a portion of the profits in the form of stock dividends.

That's how it worked for much of the 20th century, when the United States was still a manufacturing powerhouse and before globalization complicated an already complex market.

But over the course of the past 25 years the U.S. has hemorrhaged industrial jobs and has come to rely increasingly on financial products to generate profit: mortgages, loans, personal and commercial credit, and more and more complex forms of securitized investment instruments.

Not only does the money you invest not stay in your own community anymore, it may even harm your community. (Ask Cleveland or Detroit or Las Vegas about the local impact of the highly-profitable spate of mortgage securitization.)


Mergers and acquisitions have become the art of generating profit on paper without any value added, and have less and less to do with making a company stronger or more responsive to consumers. M & A tactics have become essential parts of every corporate balance sheet; an accounting sleight of hand.

Stockholders have come to demand double digit returns instead of hope for them, and the pressure to show huge profits no matter where they come from has become all-consuming for most major corporations.


Today's stock market has become so complex and fast-moving that even the tiny agencies charged with regulating it don't understand half of what goes on or how it works. Huge brokerage houses now use expensive computers designed to make sure their trades are accomplished milliseconds before their competition, thus giving them an edge that has little to do with actual market forces.

In essence, money has become so fast, so much faster than fast, that many people now feel that today's stock market has come completely unmoored from any kind of material reality in terms of goods, services, and value added. What's more, this disconnect is doing enormous damage to the world and to its people while enriching only a tiny few.


That's where Woody Tasch and the concept of slow money comes in.

What if the money you invested stayed within 50 miles of where you currently live and was committed to local merchants and growers who put at least 50% of their profits back into the community? What if, instead of making a double digit return on a fast money transaction that exploited third world villagers and pumped up corporate profits artificially, you could get a steady 2-3% return on money that dramatically improved the quality of life in your own neighborhood?

Which would you choose?

Lots of people would choose the high return and damn the consequences, but more and more people are looking for ways to add value, not just generate profit. That's the basic idea behind the slow money movement: value added, sustainable growth, responsibility to a local community.

Tasch doesn't intend that slow money will replace the stock market of today. Of course that is untenable. Instead, slow money is an option, a both/and idea whose time has come.

In other words, we might not be able to fix Wall Street. But those of us who want to can decide to just do something else, something more positive.

The Principles of Slow Money
Slow money is a movement and an idea based on six founding principles:

Money has become disconnected and must be brought back to earth.

Money can be too fast, companies can be too big, finance can be too complex. We must slow money down--not all of it, but enough of it to matter.

The 20th Century, the era of Buy Low/Sell High and Wealth Now/Philanthropy Later, has transferred enormous amounts of wealth into the hands of few and put little back. The 21st Century will be the era of nurture capital, built around principles of carrying capacity, care of the commons, sense of place and non-violence.

We must begin to invest money as if food, farms, and fertility mattered and connect investors directly to the communities in which they live. We must forge new. more intimate relationships between investment capital and local people.

"Making a killing" must be changed to "making a living." We must celebrate new entrepreneurs, investors, and customers who share sustainable values.
Paul Newman said, "I just happen to think that in life we need to be a little like the farmer who puts back into the soil what he takes out." Recognizing the wisdom of these words, let us begin rebuilding our economy from the ground up, asking:
What would the world be like if we invested 50% of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?
What if there were a new generation of companies that gave away 50% of their profits?
What if there were 50% more organic matter in our soil 50 years from now?
You can learn more about the Slow Money movement by reading Woody Tasch's book, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money, or by exploring the Slow Money website at:

http://www.slowmoneyalliance.org/

More and more I think the financial system we have in place right now is somewhat like cancer in its final stages. I doubt it can be fixed, and it probably can't be salvaged either. Focusing on it is almost unbearably depressing.

But it is encouraging to know that slowly but surely, other people are doing other things.

May they take root and prosper

I really want to get into this business
thanks a lot